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Monday, September 19, 2016

A Trip Report: United Airlines, Domestic (Aug/Sep 2016)

A Trip Report: United Airlines, Domestic (Aug/Sep 2016)

comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

It has been a while since I
have flown a ‘mainline’ U.S. carrier and the reason is that in previous years
both their service and products not good.
The carriers had not upgraded their products, and their customer service
was not service at all.The carriers
realized they needed to focus on their products, and so in recent years the big
3 – United, Delta, and American Airlines – have been focusing on providing
better service by upgrading their on-board products and their service.Delta has been focusing on Delta +, American
has been adding new planes and new service, and United released Polaris.Given these upgrades, I decided to try out
United upgraded economy product from New Orleans to Houston.

In previous cases, I have
booked my international ticket from Houston and have booked a separate domestic
ticket – and usually I have booked Southwest for my flights from Houston to New
Orleans. I usually choose Southwest over United for a couple of reasons –
more economical fares, better consistency in terms of service and product
available, and two free bags of checked luggage. This time I decided to
fly on United for a couple of reasons. The first reason is stated above –
they had been advertising a new product and enhanced service so I wanted to try
that one. The second reason is that I was connecting to an international
flight and it is always better to have all the flights on one ticket – for
baggage and flight connectivity. The third reason is that Southwest flies
in and out of Hobby Airport, while United and international flights go out of
Intercontinental and to get from one airport to the other costs about $30-45
one way and takes about an 30-45minutes (without traffic) so it takes a lot of
planning and luck to ensure you make your connecting flight.

United has many flights
throughout the day from New Orleans to Houston. Some of the flights are
operated by Airbus or Boeing jets, while others are operated by regional
jets. My first flight was in the afternoon and was scheduled to depart
New Orleans at 12:35p and arrive into Houston at 1:48pm. This flight was
operated by a Boeing 737-800. United does not charge for seat allocation,
so you can choose your own seat; however, they do charge to upgrade to Economy
Plus which allows you earlier boarding and more legroom. I had chosen an
aisle seat in Main Economy. Boarding started a bit later than usual, but
the taxi time in New Orleans is very short so the plane took off generally on time.

The layout of the 737-800
is 3-3 and the seat pitch is average. The flight times is 45 minutes, and
for that flight time both the seat comfort and seat pitch were fine. This
plane had come from Chicago to New Orleans, which is a 2hr 20 min flight, and I
am not sure the seat pitch and comfortable would have been good for that long
flight time. The seat is a basic seat as there are no USB ports nor PTV’s
available. In the seat back pocket is the airline magazine, the safety
card, and a brochure on how to access the wifi and the free
entertainment. United does provide limited free entertainment
through the United app, and again for the short domestic flights the limited
choices of TV programs are fine. You can purchase additional options, including
movies, at a cost. Once we reached cruising altitude, the attendants came
by to offer drinks and pretzels. By the
time the attendants had concluded their drink service, it was time to collect
the trash as we were descending into Houston.

For my return, I had booked
a late afternoon flight which departed Houston at 5pm and was operated by an
Airbus 319. I had cleared customs and
immigration and so went to the United counter to see if I could get on an earlier
flight; that is one of the plus points of having so many frequencies during the
day is that you have a lot of options and can sometimes get on an earlier
flight (depending on availability). I
was able to get on an earlier flight that departed Houston at 3:50pm and scheduled
to arrive New Orleans at 5:03pm. This
flight was operated by an Embraer RJ-175, and when I had previously been on
Regional Jets they were usually small, cramped, and a bit uncomfortable. When we boarded this flight, the aircraft
looked new, the seats were comfortable, and the legroom was pretty decent. The attendant had announced that this was a
new aircraft and was part of United’s ‘fleet renewal’ in which they were
updating and modernizing their fleet; this included new regional jets which
were roomier and more modern than previous versions.

The service on this flight
was similar to the outbound flight – wifi was available (for a fee) or free
entertainment was available through the United app; drinks and pretzels were
available after take-off; and overall it was a nice, short flight. Overall, I was impressed
with the new United.They have invested
a lot in their product and it shows, from the updated planes to the updated
on-board service.Given this, I would
not hesitate to take United either short-haul or medium-haul domestic.